"I feel asleep, my head on my grandmother's lap, I dreamt a dream,
Startled, I woke and 90 years had passed, and now my head fully covered in grey."
This book begins with the words of a ninety-year-old father. The reader is reminded that life is short, as but a dream, and is challenged to question what is essential in life and how one should live it.
A father's precious heritage, "The true meaning of living a good life"
The author tells a series of stories she had heard from her childhood that were told to her by her father, along with her own life-long observations of her father's life. These stories are of the father's childhood struggles with poverty, war, and refuge and settlement during the Japanese colonial period and the Korean War. And of a life thereafter of living in South Korea as a farmer. Also, stories of fatherhood full of sincerity, perseverance, caring, tolerance, and love, the roots of life values. Stories that seek to show a sincere life is one that adheres to these values.
Not preaching, but self realization
The father in the book does not instruct with words, but with actions. He shows respect to even very young children and guides them to self realizations. The author communicates her father's "attitude towards life" in an honest and easy to approach manner. Readers glean moments of self-awareness as they read through the book.
The story of the father's life,
To all parents and children, spreading the fragrance of these stories to the world
People are born, children to someone, and themselves become parents to someone. No person is born as an adult, no person is born a parent. As a child, our reality comes from our parents, and we look upon them as if they are "the world." As we become adults, we come to realize that our parents were once young and awkward themselves. We then begin to pay attention to how they themselves became adults, became parents. Although the beginnings may not be perfect, the constant struggle of a father to live a good life is of great value for their children. Therefore, this book contains valuable stories for all parents of this world, and to all the children who are looking to them.
A collection of 31 pieces of beautiful and lyrical artwork
Thirty-one pieces of beautiful and lyrical artwork augments and enhances the stories contained in the book and greatly adds to the reading experience and value of the book.
